Does everyone remember what a Dorian Mode is? Are you sure? What if a man came up to you on the street and said he would award you free ice cream for life if you could tell him what a Dorian Mode was. Could you DO IT? Would you be slurping cold treats for life, or would you be sweating in the guilty realization that you hadn't paid attention. To review... a Dorian Mode is a major scale, starting on the second degree of the scale. Just remember your major scale and the moving box. Remember it real well, because it's moving again, this time to create yet another mode, the Mixolydian Mode, which is formed when you start a major scale on the 5th degree. So here is a Mixolydian Mode based on our old friend the Bb Major Scale
See where our box is, starting on the 5th note of the scale. And there you have it, the wondrously bluesy and oft-used Mixolydian Mode. Here it is for instruments pitched in other keys.
Just as you did with the Dorian Mode, play these scales up and down, to see how they sound. You will notice that our Founding Father Mr. Jefferson might not have liked this scale so much. Can you figure out why? Is there one note that doesn't sound quite as good as the others? You stew over that one, because the answer will be in our next lesson, which you can go to when you feel rested and mentally prepared.